Final Stand
Location: Safe Zone – Eastern Defense Line
Time: July 27th, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
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4:00 PM – The Roar of War
POV: Kael
The Safe Zone had never been this loud.
Sirens wailed. Glyph sirens. The red, blinking emergency beacons. Explosions crackled across the sky like thunder made of fire. Above all, the System screamed warnings across every awakened mind:
> [ALERT: HERALD CLASS ENTITY – FULL EMERGENCE DETECTED]
[ALL COMBAT-ABLE PERSONNEL: ENGAGE IMMEDIATELY]
[SURVIVAL RANKING SYSTEM TEMPORARILY DISABLED]
Every Awakened had reported in. Hundreds stood behind the outer barricades. Melee units in front, ranged in back, support weaving between.
And at the center of it all stood the Herald — towering, cloaked in shifting symbols, an inverted halo hovering behind its skull-like mask. Its eyes didn't glow. They pulled. Like gravity.
The air around it warped. Glyphs flickered through the sky like falling leaves.
"Positions!" Kael shouted, flipping both daggers into a reverse grip. His mimic flared to life beside him, expression unreadable. It was more solid now. More… independent.
Dain knelt near the rear wall, rifle aimed, Kinetic Flow charging around him like a storm.
Elle spun her spear once, its fire-sparked edge flaring with red and gold, and leapt forward.
Armin rolled his neck and slammed his glaives together. "Time to make these bastards bleed."
Then the monsters came.
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4:12 PM – Unleashed
POV: Mixed Combat View
Dozens of sigil-beasts poured through the forest line. Crawlers with eyes stitched to their limbs. Hounds made of ribs and bone. Some ran on the ground; some crawled across the sky.
The defenders answered. Bullets screamed. Energy blades cut. A pyrokinetic unleashed a wall of fire. A telekinetic hurled chunks of concrete like meteors.
Kael blinked into the crowd using Ghost Veil, dancing between monsters. His Obsidian Dagger slashed through claws and chitin, his Dagger of Humility stabbing into glyph cores, burning them from within.
Behind him, his mimic fought with an eerie grin — dodging with perfect timing, blades flashing at angles that didn't make sense.
Dain's bullets curved mid-air, piercing through enemy ranks like sniper lightning. He shifted targets like a machine.
Elle spun into a whirlwind of Spear Strikes, flames bursting around her with each slash. Her voice cracked from yelling over the chaos.
"Push them back! Don't give them space!"
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4:30 PM – Cracks in the Sky
POV: Kael
The Herald raised a single arm.
A soundless shockwave burst out, and dozens of defenders dropped instantly, glyphs overloading. Not dead. Not hurt. But suppressed.
Kael's glyph burned on his wrist. For a split second, the Herald's palm revealed the same mark.
His mimic staggered.
Kael barely caught it. "What was that?!"
The mimic turned slowly to face him. Its mouth moved, but no words came out. Just a sound — something like a heartbeat in reverse.
Kael backed away, eyes wild. He clenched both daggers.
"Don't break now," he muttered. "Not yet."
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4:45 PM – Final Orders
POV: Kael
Kael activated Routine Surge, and a deep calm settled over his body.
Everything slowed.
He turned to the team as he danced through enemy formations, each move leaving afterimages behind. Echo Drift activated — Kael appeared behind a monster before it even realized he had left.
"Dain. Clear the north slope. No survivors. Elle — cover fire teams seven and nine."
"What about you?" Elle asked over comms.
Kael looked toward the Herald, still unmoving, still watching.
"I'm going with Armin," he said.
But Armin was already gone.
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5:00 PM – Armin's Charge
POV: Armin
Armin charged alone through the slaughter.
Flames trailed behind him as he activated both Ironhide and Flamewake. His skin turned to iron, and his glaives lit up like molten steel.
He plowed through three beasts with a spinning double slash. His voice thundered louder than the explosions:
"IF YOU'RE GONNA DIE, THEN DIE LOUD!"
A crawler launched at him from the left. Armin dropped low and slammed a glaive upward, splitting it in half.
Blood splattered across his face. He didn't blink.
Another glyph-born leapt from above — bigger, smarter, glowing with a false intelligence.
Armin didn't dodge.
He used Breaker Rush.
The impact sent shockwaves through the dirt. The creature slammed back into a wall and shattered like glass.
But Armin stumbled. Ironhide was weakening. He bled from his ribs.
He didn't care.
He kept going.
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5:20 PM – Overwhelmed
POV: Armin
Monsters surrounded him.
He was past the others now — at the front of the front. Alone.
Behind him, he could see Kael still fighting, still pushing forward.
Armin grinned.
"Well, guess this is what being the shield really means, huh?"
A beast slashed his back. Another bit into his arm.
He spun, glaives slicing in wide arcs, fire and blood mixing in the air.
"Come on then!" he roared. "I'll take every last one of you with me!"
He killed six more.
But twenty more replaced them.
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5:50 PM – Kael's Realization
POV: Kael
Kael saw the pile of corpses long before he saw Armin.
Then he saw Armin standing — barely — arms shaking, glaives melted at the edges, blood pouring down his legs.
"Armin!" he shouted.
Armin turned.
He smiled.
Then a massive shadow rose behind him. Something bigger than the rest. Covered in glyphs that writhed and pulsed.
The Herald had moved.
It raised its hand.
A glyph formed in the air — spiraling, glowing.
Kael screamed.
He blinked forward using Ghost Veil.
But he was too far.
Armin turned one last time, and mouthed something.
Kael couldn't hear it.
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TO BE CONTINUED
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